Family Separation During Slavery: A Genealogical Dilemma

Not every slave experienced family separation, but the prospect of it affected every enslaved person. Children could be separated from their parents and husbands could be separated from their wives. Help Me to Find My People :The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams explores how people dealt with this reality.

It is a sad, yet remarkable story. Not every enslaved person held out for family reunification, but a surprising number did. For decades after the Civil War, people put information wanted ads in newspapers hoping to find long-lost families. Those ads are what inspired Professor Williams to write this book.

I call it a genealogical dilemma because very few people did find their families again after the Civil War. The movements of enslaved peoples through sales weren't well documented. These two realities mean that Black descendants of enslaved people likely have family they do not know about but cannot easily find when tracing their roots.

Hopefully, that won't deter you from efforts at genealogy work. For me, it only serves as an inspiration to start looking.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)